Biotic Magic: The Prothean Legacy
by Zephyrim
Summary: Takes place during the whole Mass Effect series. Morgana sealed Merlin in the Crystal Cave. A thousand years later Cerberus finds him inside solid crystal and having discovered the cave is a destroyed Prothean beacon has him revived to fight with no memory of who he is. Merlin won't sit still and the memory loss is weakening.
1. The Illusive Magician

Biotic Magic: The Prothean Legacy

1: The Illusive Magician

"We've learned not to question your competency, but we do have reason to question your rationale. On what basis did you fund millions of credits into this…archaeological expedition?" the man in the holo-viewer asked. The Illusive Man only knew him as a sponsor from sector 2814. Compared to some of the other sources of Cerberus' income this one was relatively minor. That the Illusive Man had to answer to him at all was a formality.

The Illusive Man didn't flinch as he sat in his chair. This man was still an asset to Cerberus' funding and rebuking his short sightedness would not help the situation. "I have ample reason to believe that there was at one point a Prothean beacon on Earth."

"Different from the one on Mars?"

_Obviously. _"We know the Protheans seeded many worlds with their beacons. Both Earth and Mars could've been chosen. My sources on Earth believe they've found the remains of what was once such a beacon."

"What do you mean 'remains'? I was under the impression that the beacons were indestructible," the man argued.

"Nothing is indestructible," the Illusive Man countered. "If the Protheans had made them indestructible, they wouldn't have needed more than one. Unlike the one on Mars, the one on Earth didn't last against the throws of time."

"How is it possible that there was a beacon on Earth all this time and we didn't know it?"

"Actually, by all accounts we did…but we were a younger race then. The remains of the beacon…Prothean technology is far more adaptive than we realized. It fused with the geology of a cave in Britain—it's been transmuted into solid crystal. Because of this, some humans in that era and thousands of years after its initial discovery were granted limited biotics."

"What do you mean biotics? Surely we would have noticed humans born with such capabilities without the use of implants," the sponsor snapped, irritated.

"They wouldn't have been known as biotics then. In the exploration of the cave a man was found to be completely encased in crystal. Given the time frame of the cave's creation and discovery as well as references to such a man trapped in a cave my people at the dig site have dubbed the crystal-encased man 'Merlin.' I'm inclined to believe that that name is more than a nickname."

"You mean he could actually be the legendary warlock imprisoned by Morgana le Fay?"

"The very same."

"This is no time for jokes, Illusive Man! You can't be serious that you found Merlin—_the _Merlin?"

"I am always serious," the Illusive Man glared at the sponsor.

"Of-of course you are," the man flinched. "I want to see the body."

"That's impossible for the time being, I'm afraid. Operative Lawson is confident that Project Emrys can work."

"Project Emrys?"

"Emrys means 'immortal' in old Earth Welsh. Project Emrys is nothing less than the resurrection of the man hailed as the most powerful warlock of all time."

"I'm having difficulty thinking that you're serious. What if your little gambit fails? What if the man you found is not Merlin? What if he wasn't really a magician—biotic—as you say? Besides that, you're talking about a man born in the Medieval Dark Ages and thrusting him into _galactic _war with enemies even we don't understand."

"I like to think I understand the Reapers quite well. I'm still following Commander Shepard's movements. Her fight against Saren Arterius is uncovering a lot of things about the Reapers and what needs to be done about them. I know this will work."

"On your head be it, then," the sponsor disconnected. The Illusive Man took a deep breath then pushed a button on his Omni-tool.

"Kai Leng," he ordered into the device. "Remove sponsor 2814. His insecurity and lack of intelligence will drag us down."

"Understood."

* * *

Miranda Lawson hovered over the technicians chipping away at centuries old crystal like a hawk. They were getting close to fully uncovering the body and Miranda needed Merlin's corpse intact…so that she could revive it. It was not the way she'd expected these past few weeks to go. They had completely freed his legs and his right arm.

One woman broke through the crystal with the drill but thankfully stopped in time before the drill could grind through Merlin's left hand. Miranda examined the head where another, more experienced woman was gently slicing away the crystal surrounding Merlin's cranium with a more passive scalpel. The final man was removing the last large chunk from Merlin's chest and putting it in the disposal bin. Unfortunately, the crystal had fused to his clothing. Those sections were easier to free but it left Merlin's body a bit…exposed. Miranda moved the blanket covering his legs up to his chest.

"Concerned? He's not going to get cold, Ms. Lawson," the familiar voice made her jump. It was the Illusive Man paging her Omni-tool.

Miranda wasted no more time. "We'll have completely exhumed the body by this afternoon at the latest."

"Good. How soon can you get him breathing again?"

"It's difficult to estimate, I've never done this on a human trial before. Our trials on those Varren yielded interesting results on whether organisms could be fully revived from death but humans and Varren are two different things," Miranda reported.

"I trust you to do this, Ms. Lawson. Now, whatever power he has already it probably won't be enough to stop the Reapers without a little help. I want him outfitted with a full set of biotic implants and amplifiers. You'll be training him as an Adept once you implant the necessary knowledge to survive in this era in his mind. Make no mistake he's a weapon to save the galaxy, not a person."

"Understood," Miranda acknowledged and the Illusive Man disconnected.

"It seems a bit unfair, doesn't it? I mean—he's human and if legend is accurate then this was a horrible death full of loneliness and pain," the youngest tech, the one who had nearly drilled through Merlin's hand said.

"He's already died once, he should be grateful for this second chance," Miranda snapped and the woman got back to work.

* * *

Once Merlin was freed from the crystal, he was hooked up to every kind of monitoring device available and subjected to countless surgeries to augment his biotics—which were tested and confirmed to be quite strong, stronger than most other operatives in Cerberus and most Alliance personnel. After the augmentations were completed, Merlin was injected with countless chemicals and blood transfusions to start his heart as well as a powerful electric shock to jumpstart brain function.

The Illusive Man ordered a risky electro-shock procedure done to erase any lingering memories.

That was the first time Miranda saw Merlin in pain.

The Illusive Man didn't want a control chip placed in his brain—the memories and knowledge Merlin was about to receive was more than enough to keep him loyal in his eyes. He did order Miranda to install a kill switch at the base of his skull that could stun Merlin temporarily.

Merlin had to be restrained for the information upload. As ten languages, fourteen styles of hand to hand combat and the advanced knowledge on the use and maintenance of about twenty different kinds of pistols was implanted into Merlin's brain, he struggled with the thick leather straps holding him down and his heart rate escalated to dangerous levels.

That was the first time he opened his eyes. Miranda was shocked to see that they were a piercing gold. He looked her right in the eye for a full minute before passing out again as the information concerning the use of Omni-tools was being uploaded to his head. Miranda stayed at his side for days as he learned about the galaxy, ships, and other races, Cerberus, the Citadel, the Alliance and the Reapers. Information about Commander Alexander Shepard and the Normandy was also included as well as data on the ongoing investigation of the rogue Spectre Saren.

When the download was complete, Miranda removed the plugs on his head and released the restraints. Merlin had long since been fitted with a Cerberus uniform and his new armor and weapons had already been prepared for him. Miranda took the time to really look at him. He had raven black hair, was entirely too skinny and when Miranda checked his eyes for a response in his pupils, he found his eyes were permanently gold.

Miranda stood up and stretched. Then she called the Illusive Man.

"What do you have to report?" he asked.

"He's almost ready to wake up but I don't want to rush it; his mind is still processing the vast amount of information we gave him. It will be healthiest for him to wake up on his own," Miranda reported.

"I'd prefer him to be up sooner rather than later but I'll trust your judgment. Report back when he wakes up."

"Understood," Miranda disconnected and went to get some food. Merlin needed all the rest he could get.

When he woke up, his world was going to be so different. Not that he would remember the difference.

* * *

_A castle stood over head in the middle of the day. As he walked he could see some people waving to him but he couldn't make out their faces—they were just shadowy blurs. He couldn't remember their names or hear what they were saying. _

_A dragon in a cave…what an odd place for a dragon to be. The dragon stood tall and proud despite being chained. _

_The castle appeared again. This time there were hundreds of people. He watched as one was killed in front of the others. He remembered fear. _

_The sky above the castle grew dark. Horrible creatures with grey and blue skin started attacking the shadowy people. He raised his hand and one closest to him exploded. Suddenly he couldn't move—something was holding him back. The castle vanished for a moment as he saw a woman with dark hair wearing black and white looking down at him…and then the castle was back. He still couldn't move and his clothes had changed. He'd been in some sort of robe before but now he was in an armor made of materials he'd never seen and yet always known. The castle was breaking down around him and the people were vanishing._

_Suddenly he was in a large room he didn't recognize. There were two thrones. The smaller one was occupied by a shadow but the larger one had a person made of light sitting in it. The two extend their hands to him. He reached for them, a strange longing forming in his chest to see them again. But he couldn't remember who they were or where he was. Suddenly they were gone and the castle was gone and information that was not his flooded his mind, replacing every thought. He watched it all become his. Guns, biotics, the galaxy, the Reapers, Omni-tools, other species—all this information seeded itself in his mind. None of these memories were his if they could even be called that. _

* * *

Suddenly he was in a different, metal room. He recognized that it was some kind of infirmary. The lights were dimmed but the equipment was still working. Something shifted to his right; he spun and fell off the bed. Someone got up and came around to look at him. It was the woman from his dream. He couldn't remember much about the dream except her.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

He didn't answer; he just stared up at her.

"Don't worry, the first few minutes can be disorienting. Let me help you," she extended a hand to him. He hesitantly took it and she pulled him to his feet and made him sit back on the bed he'd fallen from.

"My name is Miranda," she said.

"I…don't have a name," he replied.

"That's to be expected. Your name is Merlin," she informed him.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"You should be able to answer that."

"Cerberus base four-oh-six, level twenty-two located in orbit around…" Merlin stopped and thought for a moment. The information was there but he couldn't get to it.

"It'll take a few days before the information sets in," Miranda left his side and returned with a trap of food. "You need to eat."

Merlin accepted the tray and started picking at the food on it. He didn't feel like eating but suddenly he found that he was ravenously hungry and started eating very quickly until the plate was empty. Miranda's Omni-tool beeped. She answered it. A small screen showing a man with vivid blue eyes appeared. Merlin knew that he was called the Illusive Man.

"He's awake then?" he asked.

"I was just about to report in," Miranda replied.

"It doesn't matter. What does matter is that I've underestimated the backbone of one of Cerberus' sponsors. Your location has been compromised, Miranda. Get him to Illium, he'll be easier to hide there," the Illusive Man ordered.

"I'll report in when I get there."

"Get moving," the Illusive Man disconnected. Miranda motioned for Merlin to follow her out of the room and down the hall to a weapon's locker. There he was given a pistol and a sub machine gun as well as an Omni-tool of his own.

"Miranda, this is Wilson, the security drones aren't responding to shut-down commands. I've quarantined them down on level twenty-four but that won't last long," a voice chimed on the intercom.

"Get off the station, Wilson, we'll find our own way off."

"Will do."

"Come on," Miranda started running towards the elevator. Merlin saw it start to open and pulled Miranda back around the corner just in time because the elevator had five mechs in it.

"Damn," Miranda whispered after looking. Merlin drew his pistol and glanced around the corner. The mechs were moving towards them. Merlin leapt out from behind cover and fired several biotic shots as well as five bullets down at the mechs. In seconds they were all destroyed.

"That was amazing," Miranda complimented as they moved towards the elevator. Once inside, Miranda hotwired the box to not stop until they got to level four—the shuttle deck. That level was clear but there were no shuttles left. Everyone else had evacuated with them.

"Wilson, there aren't any shuttles left!" she signaled.

"I'm sorry but a squadron of heavy mechs were on their way up the service elevator, we couldn't stay. We're still near the station, all you have to do is get out."

Merlin saw Miranda freeze and then spotted the suits of armor. "Over here," he said and started putting the armor on. Miranda followed suit and once she had checked his hard seals they ran for the air lock and blew themselves into space just as the heavy mechs made it onto the deck. Merlin kept a tight hold on Miranda as they floated out into the vacuum. Wilson's shuttle came to get them.

Once they were inside, Miranda removed Merlin's helmet.

"How did you two survive?" Wilson wondered, pulling them to their feet.

"It was all Merlin's doing," Miranda put her hand on his shoulder.

"They were just drones," Merlin said and moved to the next compartment to sit next to a bunch of other evacuees. He leaned back and forced himself to relax. The adrenalin left his system and he felt very tired. Miranda sat next to him as he fell asleep.

* * *

_The castle again. It was burning this time and the shadowy-people were either running or fighting each other. Two dragons flew across the sky, breathing fire at the invading shadows. Merlin watched the light-person do battle with another shadow not too far away from him. Everyone was shouting but Merlin couldn't make out the words. _

* * *

"I want to know exactly how he found out!" the Illusive Man's voice shouted. Merlin stirred and opened his eyes. Miranda and Wilson were standing facing the hologram of the Illusive Man.

"Why would he attack us in the first place?"

"The sponsor of two-eight-one-four was notified by someone on the station. Unfortunately, not even I could trace who it was. The matter has been dealt with on this end. Find the mole who told him and who set off the mechs. There's too much at stake in this galaxy for us to be distracted by internal conflicts. Commander Shepard is closing in on Saren—more than that, he's becoming a symbol to this galaxy. The first human Spectre is an accomplishment we can't afford to lose!" the Illusive Man walked out of the holo-viewer and the channel disengaged.

Merlin sat up slowly, drawing Miranda's attention.

"I'm sorry, that was a bit much to subject you to so soon," she says and checks his vitals. "You don't seem to have been adversely affected though."

"I'm fine," Merlin stood up. The space suit from yesterday had been removed.

"I just need to do some cognition tests," Miranda told him and then started asking him questions about what he knew or remembered. Merlin told her everything but the half remembered dream about the castle and the light-person sitting on the throne. She didn't need to know that.

Merlin glanced at Wilson who was looking at him with suspicious eyes. It didn't seem important.

"Where are we now?" Merlin asked.

"On a Cerberus ship heading toward Illium. We have a safe house there," she replied. "Alright," Miranda gave him a reassuring smile and guided him to a different room full of weapons and armor pieces. Merlin instinctively knew how they all worked.

"Choose your load out," she ordered.

"Why?"

"Humour me."

Merlin chose the M358-Talon and the M12-Locust as his weapons, modifying both for greater accuracy and ammo capacity. As an Adept he was only given basic armor and the pieces he picked came from Kassa Fabrications but the shield capacity had been expanded to rely heavily on his biotics. Miranda seemed perplexed that he didn't choose the Cerberus armor. He put the armor on and Miranda fastened his weapons to his back and waist. He refused the helmet.

"It's fine like this," he said.

"If you say so," she put the helmet down and the two walked to the shooting range. "I want to test your accuracy further. I know yesterday was one hell of a test but it's not conclusive to anything."

Merlin drew his pistol and aimed down the range at the targets. He opened fire, easily hitting the targets in the center of the chest and head. When he ran out of bullets, Miranda brought the targets up for him to see.

"Well, the knowledge on how to use these has imprinted well," Miranda commented after observing the level of accuracy in the bullet holes.

"What happened to me?" Merlin demanded.

"What do you mean?"

"How am I here? What did you do? Why don't I have any memories past waking up on that station? Who am I really?" he elaborated.

"You were created to be a weapon to save the galaxy. A dangerous game is unfolding out there and the galaxy needs your power. I created you. You have no memories because there are none in the first place. You are no one, Merlin. Everything you are you owe to Cerberus."

Merlin felt she might be lying but something about her words rang true even though he knew it shouldn't. What he knew about himself corresponded with the answers he was given. And yet it felt wrong.

* * *

**This is what happens when you're a Merlin fan who gets bullied by her little brother into playing Mass Effect 2 and 3 enough to start actually liking it…and then having a dream where both fandoms collide. My mind is weird.**


	2. Biotic Weapon

2: Biotic Weapon

Miranda trained Merlin for months getting his physical ability to match the knowledge he was given about himself. In those months, all emotion disappeared from Merlin—having no routine exposure to them had hardened Merlin's heart. At the end of three months, Merlin was stronger than any of Cerberus' operatives with the exception of maybe Kai Leng.

Miranda watched the assassin and the biotic—no, in terms of abilities they were both assassins—spar in what was part of Merlin's final exam to see if Project Emrys was an adequate success. She clenched her fists as Kai Leng got close enough to trip up the other man but relaxed when Merlin released a biotic shockwave that sent Kai Leng across the mat.

"Your concern is almost…maternal, Miranda," Wilson interrupted her thoughts as he entered the observation deck above the training area.

"He's a serious investment made by the Illusive Man; I don't want Kai Leng accidentally killing him."

"I doubt Leng is that undisciplined. Anyways, the Illusive Man wants you to go to Cronos Station. He says it's urgent."

"It's always urgent; no one simply gets called to Cronos station. Who's taking over this project while I'm gone? You?"

"For now," Wilson shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not looking forward to it, though. He gives me the creeps—he's worse than Leng, you know?"

"You don't have to like him. In fact, that makes it easier to deal with him. I'll forward you his psychological profile and a list of further conditioning that he needs before he can be sent out into the field."

"Looking forward to it," Wilson sarcastically remarked and Miranda left the room. She had no reason to say good bye to Merlin; he was a tool after all.

* * *

Merlin finished beating Kai Leng when he flung the assassin off the mat at a speed that would've killed anyone else but him.

"Alright, we're done," Kai Leng declared and headed for the showers. Merlin was disinclined towards the assassin anyway. He looked up at the observation booth and saw that only Wilson was there. Merlin didn't care much for Miranda though she was preferable to Kai Leng and Wilson. So far, Merlin hadn't met very many other people than that. There were a few doctors who monitored his body and kept him healthy and a few of Cerberus' combat specialists. Merlin never saw any of their faces. The doctors wore masks and the combatants wore their helmets. The only faces he'd seen since waking up were Miranda's, Kai Leng's, Wilson's and the girl who delivered his meals every day.

A few days went by when Merlin didn't see anyone he knew at all. He just sat in his room and either did more push ups or cleaned his guns and armor. Every so often someone brought him food. Aside from that, no one bothered him. He briefly wondered where Miranda was—no one would tell him. He stared out his window at Illium. He wondered whether he could get out of Cerberus' bunker for a moment. If Kai Leng wasn't onsite then maybe he could.

There was a knock on his door.

"Come in," he called.

It was just the usual perky blonde girl who usually delivered his food. What was her name? Kelly?

"Thank you," Merlin nodded to her as she set the tray down on his desk. "Is Kai Leng still on Illium?"

"No, the Illusive Man sent him off-world," the girl replied. "Is something wrong?"

"No, I was just wondering why he hadn't been by in a few days."

"I see," Kelly smiled at him briefly. Merlin, unsure of what to do, simply went back to looking at the towers of Illium until she left.

Merlin ate his lunch quickly. Technically, he was allowed free reign of the Cerberus bunker but he chose to stay in his room most of the time. He confidently walked out of his room and down the hall toward the elevator.

_No, that would be too obvious._

Instead of going down to the bottom floor, he went up to the roof. He'd been there a few times with Miranda—sniping cans on the next tower over. He wasn't very good…and he may have almost hit a window washer VI.

On the roof, Merlin looked down the side of the tower and saw the bridge to the next one over. He'd tried to get to it from the inside once. It was locked with a virtually unhackable quadruple encoded password that not even Miranda knew. It was because the other building wasn't a part of Cerberus but one of Cerberus' legitimate front companies. Neither side had access to the other from the inside.

He counted the floors. Five. He could make five.

"What am I doing?" he laughed joylessly to himself.

It wasn't that Cerberus was harming him…but there wasn't any sort of fulfillment here. Merlin was restless. He did a good job of hiding that from Miranda but still he had a lot of knowledge about this galaxy. He knew what worlds like Earth and Thessia looked like but had never seen it.

Every other night for months he dreamed of that castle and that mysterious man made of light that sat on the throne. This past night, Merlin had dreamed that the castle had been completely obliterated except for the throne where the man still sat. No nonsensical words were exchanged that time. Even though three months had past, Merlin still couldn't understand what the shadowy figures told him.

Cerberus held nothing for him and could do nothing against him. There was a whole galaxy out there and he had been stuck in the same thirty floor building for months. So what was stopping him? He hadn't made any friends at Cerberus. Kai Leng was creepy, Wilson was scared of him and Miranda had abandoned her compassionate façade that day Merlin had asked about himself. Kelly was nice enough but there was no way she could ever begin to understand him—and she either wasn't allowed to answer any questions about how he was created or just didn't know. Either way, Kelly wasn't enough to keep him here. If Miranda and Kai Leng were gone from Illium then Merlin's escape had to be now.

Merlin stood on the edge of the roof and jumped off, using his biotics to slow himself down. He landed on the bridge soundlessly and ran across, vaulting through a window into the twenty-fifth floor and sprinting for the elevator. Once he was out on the balcony he stole a car and started flying through Illium. He had to get to a space port and get to the Citadel. It would be harder for Cerberus to reach him there. He parked near a port and abandoned the car.

Merlin stopped and sat down on a bench. He had no credits to get off Illium and he needed to leave before Cerberus discovered that he was missing from the bunker and sent Kai Leng or Miranda. He got up and walked towards a bar and walked past a newsfeed.

"_A regrettable loss for the Systems Alliance today as the wreckage of the SSV Normandy was discovered. Twenty hands were lost as well as the Normandy's Commander and first human Spectre Commander Alexander Shepard." _

Merlin looked at the service picture of the legendary Commander Shepard. Data about Shepard had been imprinted onto Merlin's mind but Merlin had never seen a picture of Shepard with his own eyes. The Commander had blonde hair and blue eyes and a sort of baby-ish face. His expression was determined yet compassionate. Merlin read the service record and personal history. Shepard was born on Earth but was orphaned at a young age and raised himself on the streets before enlisting in the Alliance Navy. He was the only survivor of the initial ill-fated Akuze thresher-maw massacre that had been instigated by Cerberus. The report also mentioned Virmire and how Commander Shepard lost a good friend and comrade Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. Commander Shepard's body was never recovered.

"Merlin."

Merlin whirled around to see Wilson with an escort of five Cerberus soldiers.

"It was foolish of you to try and escape with no weapons or armor. Come with us quietly, please. Miranda won't like it if we're forced to injure you," Wilson threatened.

"I couldn't risk them being bugged."

"You're already being traced even without your equipment," Wilson countered.

"What is there for me at Cerberus?" Merlin demanded.

"Safety and a place where you have a purpose. Cerberus created you to defend this galaxy from threats no one else is willing to acknowledge and to promote humanity's place on the galactic stage."

"Don't downplay it; you created me to kill anyone who disagrees with the Illusive Man."

"Well, I don't know what you think you've been doing these past three months but it wasn't to learn how to cross-stitch. You're a killer, Merlin. You're as effective as Kai Leng or better. I watched that fight you had with him last week," Wilson argued.

"That wasn't a real fight, Wilson," Merlin countered.

"Still, it's very difficult to make that man give up, real fight or not. Cerberus is still the organization who created you; we're the closest thing you have to a family—are you really going to give that up?"

"It doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice," Merlin argued.

"Compared to what? What possible life experience do you have that says otherwise?" Wilson asked. "Well?"

Merlin couldn't think. He backed up against the wall. Wilson activated his Omni-tool and suddenly Merlin felt a blinding pain at the base of his skull…and then nothing.

* * *

_Merlin stood in the throne room again, facing the man made of light. This time the castle was intact. As he got closer, the image cleared and Merlin was looking at Commander Shepard. _

"_Can you understand me yet, Merlin?" _

"_You're…Commander Shepard?" _

"_No, but I do think that Commander Shepard will need your help just as I did," the man replied. _

"_What do you mean? Who are you?" Merlin demanded. _

_A tear slid down the man's face. "Oh, Merlin; to think that you of all people would forget my name."_

"_What do you mean 'forget'? I don't know you."_

"_Merlin, listen to me very carefully. Cerberus never gave you a reason to search for your memories but you do have them buried deep down somewhere because I protected them for you. You are a real person who had a mother and father and friends and even a child. You had all this and more…but it was all stolen away and I hated myself everyday until my death for not being able to save you. The best I can do now is tell you to fight with everything you have until you find yourself again. Cerberus wanted a weapon but you're better than that even without your memories telling you so."_

"_What do I do? I can't fight Cerberus with that thing in my head," Merlin sighed. _

"_I know. All you can do is try and remember everything…but you might not have a choice…look," the man pointed out the window. Merlin looked…and saw the intact kingdom full of non-shadowy people being erased. _

"_They're taking your memories again but it won't work, I won't let it. I'll keep making you remember who you are."_

"_Don't," Merlin pleaded._

"_What are you saying?" _

"_Just leave me be; Cerberus won't let me escape not now not ever. It's just easier for me to be their puppet."_

_The man grabbed Merlin's shoulders and shook him. "Merlin, as your friend and as your king, I have to say this: that is not going to happen."_

_Merlin was about to respond when the erasure reached the throne room. _

* * *

Miranda sighed as she sat at her new desk. Her last conversation with the Illusive Man still rang in her mind.

"_With Commander Shepard dead, our priorities have changed. I'm reorganizing our projects. Project Emrys is being shelved and Emrys cell is being re-designated as Lazarus Cell with you as Operator, Miranda. Jacob Taylor will be your second in command and operative Wilson will be your Chief Medical Officer. You brought someone back from the dead once; this will only be slightly different."_

Of course, Miranda was optimistic about Commander Shepard's revival having taken a thousand year old corpse (which by all rights should've vaporized into dust upon contact with oxygen and yet didn't) and revived it…right up until she saw the broken and blood covered body of Commander Alexander Shepard. This time, she'd have her work cut out for her.

Most of the procedures were left up to the machines in the med-bay and Wilson supervised almost everything, allowing Miranda to more effectively run the new Lazarus Cell. Most of her time was spent supervising the construction of the new Normandy. It wasn't even a ship yet, just a collection of parts slowly being assembled into a framework.

Despite the many distractions this new project provided, Miranda still felt guilty about leaving Merlin. The Illusive Man said the project was being shelved because Merlin was unstable. Unfortunately, it seemed that he'd tried to escape the base on Illium and the implant had to be used to stun him. Apparently, he had to be cancelled. Miranda had to trust the Illusive Man's judgment on that one.

* * *

The Illusive Man turned in his chair as the new man in charge of Project Emrys—a man called Daniel Sroka—appeared. He'd lied to Miranda and Wilson about Merlin being cancelled. Merlin was a several billion credit investment though the price tag on him was nothing compared to the one on reviving Commander Shepard.

"Your job will simply be to recondition Merlin for active duty. Find a way to make him loyal to Cerberus; I don't care what you do so long as it doesn't cause serious injury."

"Yes, sir," Sroka acknowledged.

"If he shows any signs of remembering who he is or if he tries to escape again then put him in cryo and report for a new assignment."

"Understood."

The Illusive Man disconnected the channel and turned to face the sun outside his window. He refused to believe that Project Emrys was a failure and therefore had to accept that there was something he'd overlooked in Merlin's psyche. It was up to Sroka to find that thing…and crush it.

* * *

Daniel Sroka stood looking at the blank-slate of a man standing in front of him and the other two remaining scientists in Project Emrys not two weeks after receiving his orders from the Illusive Man. The information about his chosen weapons and biotics had been re-uploaded to his brain and now that his body had been fully trained by Miranda, retraining was virtually unnecessary. This time however, only basic knowledge about people and places was uploaded. In Wilson's notes, it stated that Merlin was apprehended while being distracted by a news report about Commander Shepard so Sroka uploaded that information as well. And now he was examining the results of Merlin's reeducation. So far he'd answered all questions correctly without emotion or opinion like any other soldier. What was operative Lawson's problem anyway? This was almost too easy.

Sroka dismissed Merlin who was escorted to his room which was now locked from the outside at all times.

"Opinions?" Sroka asked.

"There seems to be no adverse effects from the second memory wipe. He responds as he was meant to in the first place. I vote yes for field work," the first scientist, Brynn Cole, stated.

"Agreed," the second scientist, some former intern of Cole's he didn't learn the name of, added.

"I'll submit the report to the Illusive Man. Good work everyone," Sroka stood up and left the room.

* * *

_Merlin stood on the remains of a castle…but the castle was on Illium and it was crawling with Reapers and people he didn't know but he felt he should. There were two women with long dark hair. They looked similar but not enough to be related. One looked she belonged in a royal court and the other looked like she was a warrior. She was certainly had a big enough gun. _

_Then there were two identical men, one wearing old chain mail armor and a red and gold dragon crest and the other wearing armor similar to the one Merlin trained with but with a small N7 logo on it. Two ships flew over head—one was burning and dying, the other was brand new and untested. Both carried the designation "Normandy."_

_For the two weeks he'd been alive and training with Cerberus, Merlin had had these dreams. He didn't know why and actually began to resent them. _

_The dream sequence changed, Merlin was on the shore of a lake facing a woman standing in the shallows. She could only smile at him._

_Another change. Now he was standing alone in a cave of crystal, chained to the floor by his wrists. The Crystals were showing him things—things he didn't want to see at first but then he embraced the knowledge the crystals held. As he stood there, learning, the cave accepted him as its own and preserved him within itself._

* * *

**Gasp. What will happen now? I don't know, I'm just here cuz' I'm crazy today.**


	3. Two Years

3: Two Years

Merlin stood on the deck of a space station, watching the Normandy leave on its mission to stop the Reapers. He hadn't been allowed to meet Commander Shepard before he left and he couldn't ask to without revealing that over the past two years Merlin had overcome Cerberus' memory erasure and actually regained all the information from the Prothean beacon that he had once thought was simply the birth place of 'magic.' Perhaps Arthur was right about him being an idiot. In any case Merlin's only glimpse of Commander Alexander Shepard—a man with an uncanny resemblance to Arthur Pendragon—was through an observation area above an operating table as Miranda pieced him back together much the same way she had Merlin…but with more broken bones, blood loss and asphyxiation. Merlin hadn't been that dead. His crystal encasing was actually life support, keeping his body from decaying to the point where oxygen would reduce him to dust.

Merlin often thought back to Taliesin who spent years in that cave—how he had been driven mad (because he was mad, he was so caught up in the visions from the Crystal Cave that if it had been a Reaper artifact instead of a Prothean one then he would've been thoroughly indoctrinated). Hiding that he knew so much often proved difficult. His mind was capable of differentiating between Cerberus' uploaded knowledge, the Prothean beacon's data and his own personal memories. He tried to only operate within the confines of the uploaded data and so far had not slipped up.

Sometimes he felt like there were three of him inside his own head: there was the original Merlin—a farm boy turned powerful magician, the Cerberus-created Merlin—a biotic weapon and the Merlin who had taken in an entire Prothean knowledge base and had protected Camelot by proxy for many years after sealing himself in the crystal. This Merlin could be defined as a merger between Merlin's original consciousness and the remains of Prothean VI programming. Because the beacon had broken down, the VI attached to it had as well. What was left of that intelligence had become too degraded to function on its own and so Merlin's consciousness gave it the structure it needed to survive. The Crystal Cave had contributed to the new Prothean cybernetics—cybernetics so advanced that Cerberus had mistaken them for his own neural pathways. The VI had reordered Merlin's DNA and brain structure to accommodate the vast amount of knowledge Merlin had. This meant that Merlin could be defined as a synthetic-organic existence. Cerberus hadn't done any extensive DNA testing on him and they had no reason to so they didn't know about that.

Still, he had taken a few liberties now that he was aware of the full measure of his power. He had overloaded the kill-switch that had immobilized him on Ilium but had to leave the four tracers he found alone for now. He could disable them at any time but right now he needed to keep them until he had no more need for Cerberus…which was soon. If Merlin caused a big enough distraction, the Illusive Man would probably try to divert Shepard back to deal with Cerberus' 'problem.' That was what Merlin was counting on.

Cerberus hadn't let him do much until now; Sroka had recommended to the Illusive Man that he could run missions for Cerberus but so far nothing had been assigned and yet Merlin had more freedom now than ever. Merlin was slightly concerned about this—the Illusive Man didn't seem like the type of man to simply not utilize his assets or let uncontrollable factors run loose. Still, nothing short of a long range cruise missile stood a chance of hurting Merlin at the moment. Cerberus had taken a biotic with a Prothean library in his head, amplified his already considerable power and then taught him how to effectively kill every species in and out of Council Space. If the Illusive Man knew he'd regained his memories, he was smart enough not to threaten Merlin. Cerberus wasn't on his level. Merlin left the window as the Normandy jumped away and headed to his own ship Cerberus had provided in the event of any assignments.

* * *

Commander Shepard checked the scars on his face for the hundredth time as they Normandy warped towards Freedom's Progress. Miranda said they would heal in time but for now he was stuck with them. It wasn't that they hurt anymore or bothered him but it was the suddenness of it—one moment he was on the Normandy and the next he was half conscious in a Cerberus lab with Miranda and Wilson sedating him. Then he was up and being attacked by rogue mechs. And now he was sitting in his cabin on a new Normandy two years and thirty-two scars later (he counted when in the shower, it was gruesome). His team had moved on, the galaxy thought he was dead, he was surrounded by people he didn't know that he was supposed to be in charge of and to top it all off the Reapers were still out there and getting closer by the day. For a moment it all threatened to crush him but he couldn't let it. The Collectors needed to be stopped and quickly.

His gaze wandered over to the photo of Ashley on his desk. Where was she now? How far had she moved on? Two years was too long a time to mourn someone who was dead. If she had moved on, then Shepard could hardly blame her.

He was sore all over from fighting his way through the base but he couldn't give into sleep just yet. He'd seen people die before but Miranda's 'greeting' to Wilson had been a bit much and her answer didn't sit right. She was so sure it was him but didn't really have the evidence. What made her so sure?

He forced himself to go down to the crew deck and knock on Miranda's door.

"It's open," she called and he walked in.

"Commander," she greeted. "You should rest after today. Your body wasn't meant to be taxed so much right after you woke up."

"I'll just be a minute, I know how late it is," Shepard replied and sat down on the chair by the window.

"What did you want to talk about?" Miranda wondered.

"Wilson."

"I already explained how I knew he was a traitor," defended Miranda.

"Please, you were far too sure," dismissed Shepard.

"I can't tell you about that. Let's just say that a similar circumstance occurred at another base in which Wilson used a similar strategy. The man was intelligent to a fault…but not exactly gifted with common sense. He should've known that using the same trick twice wouldn't work," she dismissed.

"Why can't you tell me what happened?" Shepard demanded.

"It doesn't concern you and it's classified. The incident has finally been resolved," Miranda evaded.

"With Cerberus' famous lack of bureaucracy?" snapped Shepard.

"I'm sorry but with dozens of mechs trying to kill us, we didn't exactly have time for a trial. He was trying to kill us so I killed him first—in any other situation you would've done the same thing, Commander," Miranda remarked, effectively ending the conversation not because she won the argument but because Shepard wouldn't be able to get anything more out of her.

"Fine, we won't take the Collectors down talking about the past. I just wanted to make sure you weren't too trigger-happy," Shepard said and then left the room.

* * *

Miranda sank into her chair. What had caused her to react like that? Merlin was cancelled and she had new responsibilities now. But the way Shepard had confronted her…it seemed like something Merlin would've done. The look in their eyes, the look that said they didn't believe her. And she hated it.

* * *

Merlin docked at the Citadel and took a deep breath as he ran his fingers over the shuttles dash board.

"Chaos," he said to himself, partly to break the silence, partly as a promise.

The Illusive Man was overconfident on what he could control. Merlin was as unpredictable as any Reaper and the Illusive Man had underestimated them both. Even Shepard would turn out to be a rogue element if he was anything like the man who shared his face.

Once he disembarked the shuttle, he sold it to a volus and walked away with a pile of credits for the brand new barely scratched kodiak. Before he got too far away from the salesman, he shorted out the tracers Cerberus had left in him. Now he was untraceable. Cerberus could track the shuttle all they wanted—it was probably going to be sold to a quarian on pilgrimage once the Cerberus logos were covered up.

Merlin practically skipped through Zakera Ward looking for a ship heading to Omega. Shepard would head there first to recruit 'Archangel' and Mordin Solus. Getting to both of them would be difficult for Shepard but maybe if Merlin added a few discreet touches of his own.

_I can't believe I actually miss having to do things undercover. After Arthur found out I didn't have to hide and bring a tree branch down to save him, I could just throw people around and take care of the problem. It was…boring. I miss the tree branches._

* * *

Merlin had files on Omega that Cerberus had put into his head. The files weren't exactly objective and now he knew why by seeing it with his own eyes. The Normandy had docked only hours before Merlin had arrived. Shepard himself was only getting off…with Miranda.

Merlin turned around and pretended to be talking to a nearby batarian. Miranda had been told that Merlin had been disposed off as a failed project. Refuting that would draw too much attention from the Illusive Man. Even as a rogue, Merlin would be allowed some leeway so long as he didn't interfere with the rest of Cerberus. Sadly, that included Shepard's mission.

That didn't mean he couldn't make it a bit easier for him.

Merlin approached Afterlife and when a very angry looking batarian bouncer tried to stop him, he stared the man down with his gold eyes and the man backed off and allowed him in.

Once inside, he followed a bunch of mercenaries down into the sign up area to take down Archangel.

"Go to the transport depot when you're ready. This does not make you a member of the Blue Suns, Blood Pack or Eclipse; you're a freelancer—that's all."

"Noted," Merlin said and left the room. He spotted Shepard up on Aria's balcony talking with her.

He rode over to the boulevard where Archangel was picking off people on the bridge. The bridge was the only way in that anyone knew of. So long as they kept throwing freelancers at him, Merlin knew they'd wear the turian on the other side down. The real mercs would be the problem. As he toured the base camps of all the merc groups, he learned a lot about the capabilities of each group.

He stumbled into a room of Eclipse mercenaries readying their weapons.

"Get out of here, freelancer," one of them spat.

"Sorry," Merlin quickly apologized. "I didn't know anyone was in here; I couldn't hear through the walls."

"Walls are soundproof, you idiot, now get out," another one snapped.

"Soundproof? Wow, my apartment isn't nearly this quiet, I can hear everything the neighbors say, do and shoot."

"Won't hear nothing being shot in here, including you if you don't get out," a third snapped.

"Perfect," Merlin smiled and drew his pistol; shooting three in the time it took the other to ready their weapons. By that time, Merlin was taking cover behind a crate and taking shots at the still unprepared mercenaries. A few of them tried to hit him with biotics—it was like giving water to a fish. Merlin hijacked their biotics and sent them back. It took a few minutes but all of them were soon dead. He left the room as silently as he entered it and no one was the wiser. When the call came, the attack would be…shorter. Archangel might just live through this.

Merlin then had to stop and look at the gun in his hand. He'd just killed twenty men without even really thinking about it. He hadn't been that brutal since…well…a while ago. As usual every event where he'd killed someone flashed back up at him for a moment.

_I suppose the guilt still means I'm human._

Cerberus had tried very hard to remove his conscience and they thought they'd succeeded. Merlin almost smiled at Dr. Sroka's incompetency. He wasn't brutal enough to change Merlin that much. He was about on the same level as Arthur throwing things at him first thing in the morning. Merlin moved away from the door, not bothering to avoid any cameras. If the mercs started hunting him, the pressure would be taken off Archangel. If Merlin wasn't going for covert assistance, then he'd tear the place up, but for one, he still needed to live through this to help Shepard and his other recruits and for another this couldn't get back to Cerberus in a way that Cerberus would feel threatened by him.

He was starting to miss tree branches a bit less.

* * *

Miranda checked her pistol as the next wave of freelancers arrived after them. Shepard was dealing with Sergeant Cathka…and judging by the muffled scream her enhanced hearing picked up, the gun ship might not be as much of a problem as it could be. Jacob had just finished hacking an YMIR mech. The three met up by the barricade. Commander Shepard had a rather neutral look on his face.

"Are you okay?" Jacob asked.

"Fine," he replied.

Miranda didn't question him; she did that enough already.

The three of them vaulted over the barricade and ran after the other freelancers. When they got up close to the building Archangel was single handedly holding Miranda shot two freelancers in the back as Jacob pulled one towards him with biotics. Shepard took out three and another two on the stairs.

_Well so far so good._

* * *

Merlin was almost to the shuttle docks heading for the quarantine zone when three angry looking batarians stopped him.

"Come with us," one ordered.

"Where?" he demanded.

"Afterlife, now," he replied.

"I see. What does Aria want with me?" Merlin asked.

"You can talk that over with her," the leader said and the other two grabbed his arms.

"This is unnecessary; of course I'll come," Merlin rolled his eyes only to take the butt of an assault rifle to his stomach.

"Aria's not taking chances."

Five minutes later he was on his knees before Aria T'Loak who was watching Shepard and Archangel take on all three of Omega's biggest players…and winning.

"I hear Eclipse is missing about twenty men," she says, not looking at him. "Not that I care."

"Then why am I here?" Merlin wondered.

"Correction, I don't care about the missing men so much as how they went 'missing' and why," Aria brings up the security footage of Merlin going into the room and then coming out again in ten minutes with a drawn pistol.

"It's a bit coincidental that the legendary Commander Shepard who was supposed to have died shows up on Omega looking for Archangel…and then you—a completely random element—shows up and helps him by taking out about…what…twenty heavy soldiers? Does that not sound odd to you?" Aria put down the recording and looked at him. "What about Shepard interests you?"

"You're assuming I'm interested in Shepard," Merlin pointed out.

"Of course you are. He just doesn't know it. Neither does that other Cerberus girl or she would've made contact discreetly. Cerberus tries to be sneaky like that…they look like a bunch of idiot children to me. Trying to keep secrets on Omega is pointless. I hear everything; even the Shadow Broker has to be extra careful with his operatives. I know you're not one of his."

"No, I'm not," Merlin smiled.

The asari smiled back for a moment. "Who are you?"

"No one important. Shepard is simply someone who needs help and he needs it quickly."

"Then why not just confront him? He seems to be recruiting quite the bunch."

"He's with Cerberus; I only just got away from them," Merlin admitted.

"Now why would you tell me that?" Aria asked. "How do you know I won't turn you in to them?"

"Because you don't owe Cerberus any favors, they don't want to owe you any and if you were to send me to them, any men you send to make the trade off won't come back. Also, whether it's you or them, I don't care who I kill. I used to care but I am older than the matriarchs of your people—I don't have to give a damn what I have to do to stay free," Merlin glared at her.

Aria's men immediately tensed—Merlin suddenly found three hands on his throat and four guns to his head. Aria just laughed and waved them off. Merlin was shoved up to sit next to her.

"You're an interesting human. If you helping Shepard keeps him off my station longer then I'll oblige. He's going to try and solve the plague problem down in the lower levels. Find Mordin Solus, see if you can keep the Blue Suns off of him long enough to finish that cure. You do that, Mordin won't have a reason to stay here while Shepard needs him."

Merlin nodded. "Thank you."

"Just get Shepard off this station as soon as possible. The trouble that follows him isn't even entertaining," Aria dismissed him. Merlin was handed his weapons back…only after being escorted from Afterlife.

"Let's do this again, sometime," Merlin quipped and dodged around the punch thrown at him. The shuttle ride over was uneventful.

There was an angry looking turian guarding the door.

"Don't even think about it," he glowered at Merlin.

"I don't have to. _Gnihton rebmemer lliw uoy! Ni em tel!_"

The turian's eyes turned glassy. "Go on in…"

Merlin said nothing; the next person to speak would break the spell. He just opened the door and went down the stairs.

* * *

"Blue Suns too many for mechs. Can't finish cure until dealt with," Mordin Solus reasoned to himself and grabbed his weapon. The guards outside were being overwhelmed by not just the Blue Suns but a three way fight that included the vorcha.

"Not good, not good," Mordin took out two vorcha and a batarian.

"Finish the cure, professor!" one of the men on his side shouted.

"No! Cure useless if clinic overrun!" Mordin insisted and kept firing. His aim wasn't the best—with the cure unfinished, everyone was vulnerable including him.

A wave of vorcha assaulted the Suns and then turned towards the three remaining men and five mechs. Shots were fired at the vorcha from down a corridor. They turned to face the new threat and got caught in a cross fire from the mechs.

"Remarkable," Mordin watched as one man came around the corner, using only a pistol.

"Finish the cure," he called and then coughed severely.

"Interesting, plague doesn't affect humans…yet this one…" Mordin kept his gun ready and walked up to the man. The man tensed but allowed Mordin to run a scan.

"Interesting, non-human DNA sequences detected. No known match…maybe…Prothean?" Mordin asked.

"That might be one thing I don't know; I thought…I thought…" the man swayed, Mordin lowered his weapon and steadied him, helping him into the clinic. He put him on the bench and forced him to lie down. He took several blood samples and ran a myriad of tests. The man wasn't about to resist, he was too delirious. How had he managed to kill so many?"

"Interesting, plague reacting especially to Prothean DNA. Perhaps point of origin? Hmm…plague strain reacting to cure built with similar strain. Should feel better now," Mordin patted the still disoriented human on the shoulder. He didn't get a response.

* * *

When Merlin regained his senses, he was in Mordin's clinic but his immediate memories were fuzzy. He'd noticed that the plague was affecting him while leaving other humans alone. Mordin was by a microscope, looking down through it.

"Awake? Good! Must thank you. Saved clinic, provided basis for cure!" Mordin came over and shook both of Merlin's hands.

"Yes, how did I do that? You said something about…Prothean DNA?" Merlin looked at his hands. He didn't think that his merger with the Prothean VI could've affected more than his thought processes.

"Yes! Archives confirm Prothean DNA sequences. You are human? Unlikely that you have Prothean ancestory…genetic resequencing maybe?"

"I don't know," Merlin cut him off. "Just when you think you know everything." He stood up and moved towards where his weapons were.

"So much to ask, to research! Human with Prothean DNA? Have to know, have to run tests…"

"Maybe another time," Merlin interrupted. "You have a cure to distribute."

"Yes, of course, assistant taking care of it. Would be helpful to reach environmental control," Mordin continued ranting but Merlin was already halfway out of the clinic. The door opened and Commander Shepard strode through.

"_Thgis morf em dleihs!" _Merlin whispered and he faded from sight. Shepard, Miranda and the turian Merlin assumed was Archangel came in. The turian wasn't looking so good. They headed for Mordin's lab immediately. Merlin looked after them for a moment but quickly left. He had a feeling that Mordin would want to run other tests if he ever saw Merlin again.

* * *

**So I guess this is the part where I tell you that I don't actually have Mass Effect 1. I have 2 and 3 (I know, I know, it's depressing) so this story follows that time line. For example, Commander Shepard is not a Spectre in the events of M.E 2 because he let the Destiny Ascension get blown to hell; Wrex is dead so we'll be seeing Wreav. I also don't have the Kasumi or Javik DLC I only have Zaeed. If you're wondering how Merlin has Prothean DNA, so far I've justified it as the VI he merged with had to repair sequences of his genetic code that had become damaged while Merlin was in the crystal and used a Prothean framework to do so rather than a human one. It might also have been that the VI rewrote a few chromosomes so that Merlin's brain wouldn't burn out at having so much knowledge in his brain. It's all just creative license really. Stop reading if you don't like it. Also, would it kill people to review?**


	4. Illium

4: Illium 

Merlin stowed away on a freighter heading to Illium. While scrunched inside a small cargo container, he forced himself to sleep. He didn't like to sleep—the knowledge he absorbed wrought havoc on his dreams but he still had to do it sometime.

_Merlin didn't like dreaming about Reapers coming and destroying Camelot but he didn't exactly have control over that. His subconscious was a very interesting place since he was over a thousand and had memories stretching back over that whole time. _

"_Vanish!" he called. On some level he was separate from the Prothean V.I inside his head. So long as Merlin insisted on being Merlin the merger would be incomplete but Vanish was willing to make compromises even Merlin would never do even after everything he'd been through. _

_The fractured Prothean ghost appeared before him. "Why have you called?"_

"_I have Prothean DNA," Merlin told him._

"_That is correct."_

"_Why?" Merlin had to be harsh with Vanish, the VI's programming was still half degraded. His ability to speak had worn out and therefore had to stem from Merlin's own ability. Because of this, Vanish had Merlin's voice but the imitation was colder, the inflections on words were more mechanical and the VI sometimes adopted some of the more sarcastic tones that Merlin reserved for Arthur. It sounded wrong. _

"_In order to preserve your mind, physical changes were made to accommodate the extra information without erasing nonsense data you refer to as emotions. Also, as time progressed, your body was decaying. I initially attempted to replace the fragmented sequences of your DNA with human ones but they failed. Only Prothean sequences remained viable," Vanish explained._

"_Alright," Merlin nodded. "One more thing: the crystal was what was left of your platform, your beacon. Even after using my nervous system to supplement your failing programming, you were mostly still operating from there as my life support system."_

"_When we were separated from the cave, I improved your neural connections to handle all of my programming and the knowledge of the beacon. The platform was disposable."_

"_So in order for us both to live, I have to be half-Prothean?" _

"_An inaccurate assumption. Less than forty percent of your DNA was changed," Vanish explained. _

"_It's enough that a plague that doesn't target humans affects me," Merlin protested. _

"_Unavoidable. A full human would cease to function under these conditions."_

"_Fine then."_

* * *

When Merlin woke up, he was in a cargo hold on Illium. There were Eclipse soldiers everywhere. Merlin slipped by most of them…and then he ran into a cloud of asari mercenaries.

Merlin threw a singularity but several of them had already blasted him across the room. The singularity caught two of them but one punched Merlin across the jaw with a biotic fist and sent him into a cargo container.

"Grab him," one of them ordered.

Merlin pushed himself off the ground and onto his knees, disoriented. This was why he hated sleeping. Now he had to deal with ten brutal biotic mercenaries…with a concussion.

One of them grabbed his shoulder; something snapped inside Merlin and suddenly the whole cargo bay was either on fire, floating in the air dead or both. Merlin's nose started bleeding. The cargo bay was very big.

Merlin picked himself up and limped out into Illium proper, heading for a bar.

_I'm getting far too injured lately…_

Merlin went up to the bar and sat down in front of the bar tender.

"You okay?" she asked. She sounded old even by asari standards.

"I'm fine."

"No you're not but if you're here then you might as well drink. I'm Aethyta, by the way. Asari matriarch and bartender."

"Merlin," he nodded to her as she brought out a drink for him.

"I think I read an old human legend about a guy with that name," she said.

"What did it say?"

"He got his ass handed to him by some witch."

"That sounds about right."

"I always liked those stories. Makes humans seem like they're not all assholes."

"Yeah, what the hell happened to us?"

"I can't answer that one; that's something humans have to work out for themselves."

"I'd think an asari matriarch would have a few ideas…speaking of which…"

"Why is a matriarch serving drinks in a bar? Where have I heard that before? Oh right, everyone."

"You were the one who introduced yourself as such," Merlin reminded her.

"Yeah…I need a new conversation starter," Aethyta sighed.

"I won't ask further," Merlin promises and starts drinking.

"Then I'll ask about you…and don't bullshit me, kid."

"I'm not much of a sharer."

"Then bullshit me, and I'll call you on it until you feel like giving the straight answer," she challenged.

Merlin spun every tale for her he knew how but she always managed to figure it out. Maybe it was because she was expecting it or Merlin had lost his lying skills.

"I'm nearly two thousand years old, I've died once, Cerberus brought me back from the dead, I have more biotics in my baby toe than the population of this bar and the surrounding neighborhood, and I just emptied a whole cargo bay full of mercenaries by losing control for one second. Also, I'm Merlin."

Aethyta paused for a full minute. "Holy shit."

"I'm also very observant. Your father was either a krogan or a turian—even if you don't have the genetics, being raised by your birth parents passes on personality traits. As you probably had a lot of exposure to both of your parents and have a rather rough way of speaking, I'm guessing a krogan."

"Ya ever think of being a bartender in your old age?" Aethyta grumbled. If asari blushed the same way as humans she just might have.

"Maybe. I've got too much to do right now. This body still feels young enough, it's my mind that's going. If I have anymore kids at this point they're screwed. Speaking of which, you-"

"Oi, that's not something I like to discuss. You've made your point. Finish your drink," Aethyta ordered.

"Apologies," Merlin nodded and downed his glass. "I'm going to go limp somewhere."

"Don't die, you'll cause three days worth of paperwork for some poor police intern,' Aethyta warned.

"Noted."

* * *

Commander Shepard had more than a few reasons to be grateful. Finding Garrus was one. Mordin having the cure already finished for Garrus was another. Now the Normandy was on the way to looking for a krogan warlord.

Shepard sighed. It would be so much easier if Wrex and Kaidan were still alive but they weren't. Wrex he could've dealt with but an unknown element like Okeer that _Cerberus _had recommended? Not so much. Once again, Shepard found himself missing Ashley. She had grounded him so much while stopping Saren. Now he couldn't see her. Anderson hadn't been able to say anything about where she was.

Joker said he would call when they got to their destination and that wouldn't be for hours so Shepard allowed himself the comfort of sleep.

* * *

_He was on Earth, that much he could tell but it wasn't a part of Earth he was familiar with. There was an old castle with shadows that acted as people. Then he saw himself walking in armor with another man wearing much cheaper clothes. The first man didn't notice him but the second man looked at him and smiled._

* * *

Merlin hacked the Cerberus network to check on the Normandy. It was the first time he'd moved from his hiding place in four days. Bloody concussion. The Normandy had picked up a genetically enhanced krogan and a super gifted yet mentally unstable convict. They'd also found Tali'Zorah vas Neema on Haestrom. Cerberus had even negotiated a contract with a mercenary named Zaeed Massani. Now the Illusive Man had found a list of probable planets that the Collectors would hit. Horizon was at the top.

Merlin decided to head there. On the sub level of an abandoned warehouse, he found a working shuttle capable of using the relay system. He stole it. He almost regretted selling his shiny Cerberus shuttle earlier.

* * *

Freedom's Progress was already under attack. Merlin could keep the swarms away from him as they pelted his barrier. Ashley Williams, who was standing paralyzed on a hill and surrounded by Collectors, was about to be not quite as lucky. Merlin recognized her from Shepard's file. He pulled his sub machine gun and shot all the soldiers and some of the bugs to get to her. It was painfully easy. They honestly hadn't expected anyone besides Shepard to be able to deal with them. Once Ashley was inside Merlin's barrier, he did a scan on her.

"I can't reverse the paralysis. It has to wear off on its own," he told her. Her eye twitched in response. "It also means I can't leave until these swarms clear away. Neither of us is going to be in this fight, I'm afraid."

Merlin kept an eye out for more Collectors but none came and Merlin suspected that it had something to do with the Cerberus shuttle that landed nearby. Hours went by before Ashley's paralysis wore off.

"Who are you?" she asked as she flexed her muscles.

"No one important," Merlin was sitting down at this point. Those damn bugs were persistent.

"I need to help the colony," Ashley started moving.

"The moment you leave this barrier you'll be stung again. A few hours ago I might have managed it but now…" Merlin held up his trembling hand. "Now could be difficult."

"Your biotics are amazing," Ashley looked at the barrier.

"I don't know about that. Some times I feel like I have too much power and other times I feel powerless. I shouldn't have to rely on other people but in the past two years and six months I have nearly been killed eight or nine times. I shouldn't need help."

"I feel the same way," Ashley sat next to him. "I lost a dear friend and the last two years have been…hollow."

"You mean Commander Shepard?" Merlin asked.

"How do you know him?"

"The whole galaxy knows him," Merlin stated. The Collector ship nearby was starting to get assaulted by the colony defenses. "That's him now."

"You can't be serious," Ashley stood up. The seeker swarms started dying off in droves. Merlin released the barrier.

"Go and see," he muttered, standing up. The past week had not treated him well. Ashley ran off, totally fixated on seeing Shepard. Merlin doubted that she would even remember that she met him until way later. He walked back to the shuttle with a headache.

_I think these Cerberus implants are stressing my nervous system. _

He waited until the Normandy had jumped away as well as several shuttles of survivors. He didn't want to be noticed. Shepard didn't need to know about him because if Shepard knew Miranda would find out and the Illusive Man would be notified. Staying under Cerberus' radar was essential.

* * *

Merlin returned to Illium to find Cerberus troops discreetly combing the area he was going to land at. Apparently an utterly destroyed cargo bay was enough evidence as to his comings and goings…

_So much for under the radar…_

Merlin ditched the shuttle and ran to the trading floor. He was almost to a place where he could call a cab and vanish when a Cerberus patrol appeared in front of him. He turned around when another patrol came around the corner.

_No, I was careful enough, wasn't I? _

Someone grabbed his arm and pulled him backwards. Merlin rounded on them to discover a young asari wearing green. Merlin also knew her from the files. Liara T'Soni. She was with Shepard on the old Normandy.

Liara pulled Merlin upstairs to her office.

"Thank you," Merlin said.

"You're welcome. They can't check this office without causing an 'incident.'"

"Because you work for the Shadow Broker, Liara T'Soni?"

"You know about that?"

"Cerberus has a file on you and their security isn't something that I can't get through.

Liara nodded. "I guess I can't really be offended; I have a pretty large file on you as well. You're an archaeological dream, Merlin Emrys."

"Is that why you helped?"

"No; I helped to repay a debt for what you did to help Shepard on Omega. He might not know about it but I do and I am immensely grateful."

"I can't let Cerberus find me yet. I don't know why they're even looking. I'm helping Shepard in a different way than they are but I am behaving," Merlin sat down by her desk.

"Perhaps I can find out?" Liara brought up her monitor. "Though if you want to not be noticed by Shepard and his new team; now might not be the best time to be around. He'll be here to find two new members soon. Go to this address; no one will look for you there," Liara pushed a few buttons on her Omni-tool and Merlin's received a nav point. "You need to rest. Cerberus may have given you too much power."

Merlin nodded and left the office. Cerberus was being chastised by Illium's law enforcement so he managed to get to the small apartment Liara had indicated. Merlin let himself in and looked around. This wasn't an unoccupied space. This looked to be Liara's personal quarters. Why would she send him here? For an information broker, security could be rather illusive, having a place no one knew about was essential.

For the moment it didn't matter, Merlin was exhausted. He lay down on the couch and went right to sleep.

* * *

_He dreamed about Camelot and the people in it. He saw Kilgharrah and Aithusa flying in the sky. Arthur and Gwen were showing off their newborn twins to the crowd. Merlin wanted this dream to end; he didn't want to be stuck in the past with friends long dead. Despite all his struggling the dream continued. His hand grabbed something solid and suddenly Liara T'Soni was in his dream with him. _

"_How did you…?" she asked, looking around. _

_Merlin scowled, he didn't want her here but it might have been his fault the information broker had been pulled into his dream. _

"_I didn't mean to pull you in."_

"_You were having a nightmare; I was only trying to…"_

_Merlin shook his head. "I didn't know I could show this to anyone else…but I don't want to."_

"_I understand," Liara closed her eyes and the dream faded away around them._

* * *

Merlin woke up to find himself gripping Liara's arm. He let her go and sat up.

"I'm sorry," she backed away from the couch.

"Why did you send me here?" Merlin stood up.

"Cerberus can't find this place; it's the one thing I know how to protect."

"Why go so far for me?"

"It's not just you. You're willing to risk your life for Alexander Shepard. He's here on Illium looking for someone. You should join him," Liara urged, taking a step closer. "I can't leave here but maybe you…"

"I can't be near Cerberus. They seem to have stopped tolerating my presence as it is. You probably shouldn't have helped me," Merlin tried to move towards the door but Liara stopped him.

"Your implants are unstable and in danger of overloading. You should get them disabled or reset. I have your medical records; even you can't survive like this."

"I need to be as strong as I can be; I will adapt to this," Merlin removed her hand and kept going out of her apartment.

For the rest of the day, Merlin's mind would compare Liara's kindness to his own when he met Freya.

* * *

**I should probably mention that when I played, I picked synthesis. Just throwing that out there. Shepard will probably pick synthesis in this story. If you don't like that then stop reading; I won't take complaints about my personal choices. If you'd like to know why, I will explain later in the story. If you'd like to know why and don't have the patience for waiting until this story reaches Mass Effect 3 then I will tell you if you ask very, very nicely.**


	5. Why

5: Why

Samara was not what Shepard expected when he met her. He'd expected justice…just not black and white justice. He could work with her, sure, but there would always be an odd feeling with their relationship. That kind of coldness…and what would the Code say about people like Jack? Or Zaeed? Would Samara's Justicar Code compel her to take out members of her own team?

Shepard had to deal with this issue later. First came the issue of getting the information Samara needed before Anaya and her officers paid the price. Garrus and Tali were with him—they were with him more often than not on missions like this. He hadn't talked with Mordin, Grunt, Zaeed or Jack enough to trust them and the familiarity was nice. He was saddened that neither Ashley nor Liara would come back to the Normandy but he _had _been dead for two years. At least the scars were starting to heal.

* * *

Merlin followed behind Shepard's team at a distance using an alternate path. Using Vanish's abilities, he'd pulled up detective Anaya's case records about the volus merchant. He was now moving in a sort of backwards order than what Shepard was moving in.

On one console he found a recording about a mercenary named Elnora who killed a volus. Hopefully Shepard would also find it.

Merlin didn't find anything else that could help Shepard. He started to head for where Thane Krios was last spotted. He was almost out of the building.

"Hold it right there," someone behind him ordered. Merlin heard the distinctive clip of a gun's ammo being switched.

"I'm not here to cause trouble," he said.

"The hell you're not; I saw what you did to my sisters in that cargo bay last week," she replied.

"They attacked me," Merlin turned to face the lone asari. She took a step back. "Are you Elnora?"

"What does it matter?" she replied.

"I think you are; I'm amazed Commander Shepard failed to shoot you."

"He's such a goody two-shoes," Elnora chuckled. "I only pretended to shoot; I didn't think we'd be peddling drugs," she said in a helpless voice before laughing again. "He totally bought it."

"I know of a justicar that would love to meet you," Merlin muttered.

Elnora took a step closer. Merlin lifted several crates behind her and prepared to send them flying at her but a piercing pain in his head stopped him. The crates dropped behind her causing her to turn and Merlin managed to send Elnora flying off into a wall. No one would find her body for a while.

Merlin struggled with the pain in his head which had now spread to the rest of his body. He struggled and tried to escape it but it was hopeless. Maybe Liara was right…

* * *

When he woke up he expected to be in a hospital or Cerberus custody…or both. Not back in Liara's apartment on her bed. He tried to sit up but he had a massive headache. His armor was gone—it was the first time he'd really taken it off in…a while. His Cerberus uniform was also gone. That left him wearing…boxers.

When he was able to move without small explosions of pain in the forefront of his skull he looked across the room. Liara was in her kitchen. Merlin sat up.

"What happened?" he asked, loud enough for her to hear.

She came out of the kitchen and came over with a cup of some asari variant of coffee. "I found you unconscious; your implant shorted out. I disabled it manually but…you've been unconscious for nearly a week," Liara explained.

"A week? How much has happened? Have you been keeping an eye on Shepard?" Merlin tried to stand up but Liara stopped him.

"Shepard has…disappeared from my view. He was helping with a problem in the quarian flotilla and then…my contacts on Omega tracked the Normandy to the Omega 4 relay."

"He's fighting the Collectors already?" Merlin leaned back. "He moves fast."

"The Collector's stole all but one of his crew otherwise he would've taken his time. Can I ask you something, Merlin?"

Merlin nodded.

"Why do you go so far for Commander Shepard?"

"It's hard to explain. He's…a lot like a very old friend of mine. Actually, he's pretty much exactly like him. I want to give him the same kind of help that I once gave to Arthur Pendragon," Merlin smiled to himself and then remembered who he was talking to. He hadn't been able to talk about himself to anyone since waking up in this new era. There was a certain peace in saying even that much. Then there was anger.

Merlin put his face in his hands. "I've really been useless, haven't I? After everything that's happened since I woke up nothing has really mattered. In only a few weeks, Shepard has surpassed every obstacle that I was going to help him avoid. He doesn't…need me."

Liara sat next to him. "No, not useless. Mordin Solus might not have found that cure in time without your help. You saved Ashley Williams from a fate too terrible to speak of and you Whatever you did to lighten Shepard's load even slightly has helped."

"I wish…I wanted to do more," Merlin looked at her.

"Maybe you weren't meant to. Cerberus pulled you out of time; turned you into something you're not."

"Better I stayed in the cave Morgana left me in. At least then I could appear to Arthur and guide him…but that was so long ago. You're an archaeologist; if it had been you…no, that's not fair," Merlin sighed.

Liara hugged him; Merlin started. No one had been able to touch him in over fifteen hundred years and since he'd woken up he hadn't really been touched by anyone except for when he'd been in fights. No one had hugged him ever. He didn't realize how much he missed it. He found himself hugging her back.

"What do I do now?" he asked.

"Whatever you want," Liara pulled away, keeping one hand on his face.

"I can't stay here, Cerberus is everywhere on Illium," he said.

"I think I can help with that," Liara offered.

"You've done enough already. You're in a dangerous profession, Liara. Don't make me your weakness."

"I can handle danger; I was on the Normandy once," Liara insisted.

"Just…don't die because of me."

End of Act One

* * *

**Okay, so Act Two doesn't begin on another story, it's just the next chapter. It just makes more sense for it to exist in several arcs rather than several stories. You may have noticed that I glanced over pretty much all of ME2. Well, would you want to visit 20 hours worth of game missions and right a story on each of them? No, ME3 is where all the action happens. **

**I actually like the ending. **


	6. Run

6: Run

Merlin had been living in this strange new galaxy for about three or four years now in total. He'd returned to Earth, visited where Camelot used to be. It was all forest, one of the only ones left in Britain. The castle was a popular tourist destination and archaeological dig site. They had no idea what it really was.

Liara had left Illium and taken down the Shadow Broker with Shepard's help. Then she took a vacation to see him in his own home. He told her everything about the place; the good times, the hard times. He spoke of the cave where Cerberus had found him but refused to show her. He never wanted to see it again and she didn't insist. Then Liara had to go back to being the Shadow Broker and Merlin continued his new life. He wasn't chasing Shepard anymore. Shepard had destroyed a sun and killed roughly 350,000 batarians. The Alliance had relieved him of duty and he hadn't fought them. It also meant that he was inaccessible on Earth—no one was allowed to see him. That was two days ago.

Merlin didn't mind. His first life had been helping Arthur all the time; now he was free to live his own life…sixteen hundred years later. There may be something seriously wrong with him.

Merlin had been content to simply live. He had found a place to stay near the ruins of Camelot. He was at peace. Then Cerberus tracked him down.

He had always been keeping an eye out for them but he'd never expected them to get so close without him noticing. Kai Leng was with them. Against a squadron of phantoms as well as Cerberus' top assassin, Merlin had hardly stood a chance. Merlin's biotics were impressive…provided they actually hit the target and it had been a long time since Merlin had sparred with Leng. He wasn't sparring now and Merlin just couldn't cope.

They nearly killed him to get him off of Earth. The Illusive Man obviously wanted him alive.

Leng had drugged him rather thoroughly to keep him from gaining focus. He remembered seeing the Illusive Man's face briefly and suddenly his world was cold and dark and he couldn't move.

Merlin felt like he was back in the Cave. He was cold and alone and aware. However, this was worse. The cave had at least allowed his mind to leave. He'd visited Arthur several times before his eventual death. He hadn't been able to touch or smell anything but he could at least see.

This was crushing darkness. This was stasis.

This was maddening.

* * *

Several months later…

The Reapers had taken Earth. That fact was everywhere on the Normandy: the hastily assembled parts, the haunted, shocked look in every one's eyes even as they performed their duties. Commander Shepard had never really seen the symbol he'd become until he saw that shock turn to hope whenever he passed by. He'd never seen the impact of his actions, of the lives he saved.

He'd never guessed at how much people were depending on him.

He'd never felt so pressured.

Saren, Sovereign and the geth were just a hint at this; Harbinger and the Collectors were only the beginning. The Reapers were here. Only now had people started listening; only now did they care. Stupid human nature…and not everyone was human at that. Denial seemed to be common across the galaxy.

Shepard didn't stray too far from the med bay. Ashley was seriously injured and it would be a while before she would be back in this fight. They'd had their disagreements—the one on Horizon was the worst, it made Shepard question whether Ashley was still…whether they still had a chance together. It was a hard couple days after that fight. Shepard had ultimately refused to abandon Ashley; as interesting as some of the other women on his crew were, they just didn't have that same spark. Miranda was too cold, Tali was just a friend, Samara would never allow it even if her Code did, and he didn't even think of Jack. Jack had issues. None had come close to what Ashley was.

And he might lose her again.

* * *

The Citadel was still relatively quiet. The news about Earth was nothing shattering—either because the war hadn't reached the home worlds of other races or because worlds like Palaven were also among the attacked. Suddenly there was a shared understanding between humans and turians who had been at odds with each other for decades. Save Palaven. Save Earth. The refugee camps were filling with both races. With space cramped, there was little room for disagreements.

Alexander Shepard waited in the hospital while the doctors looked over Ashley's wounds. He had to meet with the council; he was not looking forward to that. Honestly, if they had just listened to him sooner…

He forced the thought from his mind. This wasn't the time to be throwing blame around.

* * *

Liara went over every inch of the Shadow Broker's network. _Her _network. Her last communication between herself and Merlin had been over nine months ago. She was really starting to get worried about him. None of her operatives could find him. All her contacts on Earth had gone dark—either because they were hiding or unable to communicate.

She had to stop herself. A whole galaxy was falling apart and she was looking for one man. It wasn't ridiculous; they had grown to care for each other though Merlin was too old and tired to allow himself anything more than a very strong friendship. Liara hadn't expected any of her future partners to think of themselves as being too old for her. Especially a human one. This was new. She didn't want to lose him this fast. Merlin's body didn't seem to age at all so he'd actually out live her naturally. If this damn war didn't kill either of them first.

* * *

Daniel Sroka had rectified his failure. He'd put an end to the rogue actions of the failed Emrys project. It at least kept the Illusive Man from killing him nearly a year ago when the biotic was put into stasis. It wasn't stopping him now.

Daniel limped down the hall even as Kai Leng was ordered to kill him. Blood was spilling out from several gun shot wounds in his leg and abdomen. Sroka had expected this. He'd failed once; the Illusive Man wasn't going to tolerate that even after this long with no other screw ups. The completion of his latest project had ensured Sroka's 'removal' from Cerberus.

Sroka made it to the cryo tank where they were keeping Merlin. He started the thaw sequence and encrypted it so that they couldn't shut it down in time. The moment Merlin was able to move, he would. Even in stasis, Merlin's brain activity was constantly in distress. Sroka grabbed a particular tool with bloodstained hands and reactivated Merlin's biotic implant and amplifiers. The jump in brain activity was a good sign; the fact that Merlin's pod started glowing with that familiar biotic glow was another. Daniel Sroka might die but he might as well take half of this base with him. The Illusive Man didn't want to stop the Reapers but Merlin just might.

Leng's phantoms had found him a minute later. Merlin's thaw sequence was half done. These assassins wouldn't be adept enough to power down before Merlin tore through them.

That thought brought some comfort as he died.

* * *

Shepard was starting to feel better about this whole scenario. Garrus was back with him; there was no Shepard without Vakarian. He'd have to share that sentiment with Garrus some day. Even as the Normandy was preparing to bring the krogan into the fight to save Palaven—and by extension Earth—Shepard was fairly calm at the moment. He could deal with Urdnot Wreav—the krogan leader was no where near as intelligent as Wrex had been.

"Commander, Admiral Hackett would like to speak to you on vid com," specialist Traynor's voice sounded in his quarters. Shepard sat up on his bed and got up to wash his face. It was days like this that he missed Kelly Chambers. Traynor was good but there had been something about Kelly that Shepard had really connected with.

Thinking of Kelly made him wonder what exactly had happened to his fish after he left the Normandy. They were still alive last time he checked.

* * *

In the comm room, Shepard brought up the signal from Hackett.

"Commander, I'm temporarily pulling you off the mission to Tuchanka. One of our satellites picked up the wreckage of several dreadnoughts in orbit around a suspected Cerberus outpost. I want you to find out why. Cerberus has been throwing battalion after battalion at whatever's down there and they all just keep getting wiped out. If it can be used to stop the Reaper's, then bring it into the fight. If it can't be controlled, destroy it. We can't risk letting Cerberus regain control of it."

"Understood, Admiral."

"I will stall the conference as long as I can; I suggest you get on this."

Hackett disconnected and Shepard relayed the provided coordinates to Joker.

* * *

The Normandy jumped into the edge of the system.

"I'm picking up the wreckage of several dreadnought class ships in orbit around the outpost," reported EDI.

"Can we get close without getting taken out?"

"I wouldn't take the Normandy anywhere near orbit. Those floating wrecks remind me too much of the old Normandy," Joker looked at him.

"We'll take the shuttle to get in."

* * *

Shepard chose Liara and EDI to go with him. As a soldier, Shepard lacked any sort of biotic or tech abilities and relied solely on weapons and special types of ammo. Liara and EDI could compensate for that. He waited while Cortez flew the shuttle through the wreckage.

"Are you sure that whatever weapon is down there won't hit us? Some of these ships had the similar stealth drives like the Normandy," Liara asked.

"All of these ships were Cerberus dreadnoughts. My sensors have indicated that several smaller shuttles and fighters have made crash landings on the planet's surface near the base. It is my estimation that only the Cerberus equipment was under attack," reported EDI.

"We'll just have to wait and see once we get there," Shepard added, staring through the front at the wreckage.

* * *

The outpost was smoking in the middle of a raining forest. Cortez landed near the base and then pulled away to a safe distance. There were patrols in the area. The three moved quickly through the bush, not encountering anyone. Near the entrance there were a few security mechs that were behaving erratically. EDI took care of them while Shepard and Liara moved ahead to deal with the remaining Cerberus troops. Resistance was lighter than expected, like Cerberus was very disorganized.

"What could've happened here?" Liara asked. There was blood everywhere and small biotic created fires from warps that were still burning. Three dead soldiers floated in a singularity that refused to dissipate.

"Even Jack was not capable of this, Shepard," noted EDI.

"I know. What was Cerberus doing here?" Shepard wondered as they moved through the base.

"I didn't have any recent records on this place. I thought it was a minor research center or think tank. If they created a person with this kind of power…" Liara shuddered.

"Scans of the remaining computer systems reveal that all defense systems are being routed to the lab at the end of this hallway but no platform or terminal is being used," EDI added.

Shepard approached the hallway slowly. The blood was the thickest here. Shepard had never seen so much except for maybe Akuze. Liara hadn't either and EDI seemed unaffected by the issue until Shepard noticed her grip the handle of her gun a bit more tightly—something only an organic would usually do.

The door was open. Shepard peaked inside. There was one man sitting on a crate, soaked in blood that didn't appear to be his. His eyes were glowing green and little lines like circuitry branched out from them onto his face like a half mask. There was a Cerberus pistol in one hand set up with Warp ammo.

He looked up at them with wild eyes. The lines of circuitry faded away and his eyes went from green to gold.

"Commander Shepard," he greeted.

"Who are you?" Shepard looked at him and took a cautious step into the room. Liara entered, and lowered her gun when she saw him.

"Goddess, Merlin!" she walked up to him. He shrank away from her and ran away from his crate, raising his gun.

"Stay away," he ordered.

"It's me," Liara put her gun away and raised both hands. "It's only me."

The man Liara called Merlin looked at her. "Liara T'Soni."

"That's right, Merlin. I'm your friend."

"I…how long?"

"I haven't seen you in a year."

"A year…only a year…" Merlin seemed relieved enough that he dropped his gun and sank to his knees. Liara rushed over to him and caught him in a hug.

"You know him, Liara?" Shepard asked.

"It's a long story," Liara began but Merlin suddenly stood back up and went to the door.

"Cerberus. I thought they'd be smart enough to not send more. The Illusive Man is even more stupid that I had thought," Merlin started glowing with blue biotics and then gripped his head in pain. "That bastard reactivated those bloody implants!"

Liara went up to him. "We'll handle it."

"Get me out of here," Merlin begged.

"We will," Shepard promised. That got his attention.

"You sound like an old friend of mine," he said before his headache caused him to pass out. Liara caught him and Shepard threw him over his shoulder.

"Cortez, be at the landing zone in five minutes," he signalled.

"Acknowledged."

EDI and Liara moved out first and immediately had to engage Cerberus forces. Shepard followed from behind carrying this mysterious blood-soaked friend of Liara's.

All the survivors of the Ceberus dreadnoughts were starting to converge on the base. Most wore helmets but a few were unsuited, revealing the horrible blue markings of Reaper tech Cerberus had been implanting in them.

"Commander, the LZ is too overrun to make a pickup here," Cortez radioed. Shepard swore. There was no way they'd outrun Cerberus in the forest.

"Normandy, we need an evac, now!" Shepard radioed.

"Roger that," Joker replied and in a minute of holding their ground from hundreds of indoctrinated Cerberus personnel, the Normandy cleared a path to them. Vega and Garrus provided covering fire from the shuttle bay. Cortez had already been picked up.

"Get us out of here, Joker!" Shepard ordered as he headed to the med bay.

* * *

Shepard returned to the Citadel and Merlin was sent to Huerta. Liara went with him.

Ashley was awake in her room; she still looked bruised up. Shepard didn't care. She was going to be okay. The best thing either of them could do right now was just talk.

"You know," Ashley said after they'd talked a while. "After all that business with the Collectors, I wouldn't blame you if you found someone…after Horizon," she told him.

"You could but you don't have to. Honestly, Ash," Alexander shook his head and smiled.

"Most people would crack under the strain you're under," she said.

"Most people don't have you looking out for them like I do…I do, right?"

"Yeah," she replied, taking his hand. "You do."

"When you get out of here, can we just have a drink and talk? Everyone thinks Commander Shepard is invincible but Alexander Shepard isn't," he admitted.

"Well you did come back from the dead…that seems to be inspiring people," Ashley encouraged.

"Yeah. I should go; Liara picked up something interesting on a previous mission."

"We can talk all about it later," she promised.

"Thanks, Ash."

* * *

The doctors had tried to gently scrub the blood off of Merlin but it was tedious and there was a lot of it. He woke up about a tenth of the way through the process and after fighting to get out of bed simply jumped off the Presidium into the lake. The Doctors were not impressed but the man was clean.

Shepard watched them work with Merlin. Once he was cleaned off and given proper clothes he was surprisingly uninjured. He tolerated the doctors but responded best to Liara. Once he was asleep again, Liara came back out of the room.

"He's…interesting."

"I told you it was a long story…would you like to hear it?" Liara asked.

"I would," he gestured at some unoccupied chairs. They sat down.

"How much do you know about Earth's Arthurian legends?" she inquired.

"Enough to know that Merlin has a pretty famous name," Shepard replied.

"He _is _Merlin. The name isn't a coincidence. He glossed over a lot of the details but Morgana trapped him in a crystal cave just like in the myths. The cave was either crystallized to begin with or simply changed when a Prothean beacon had broken down there. Either way, Prothean knowledge was leaking out for all to experience regardless of proximity to the cave. Combined with the crystals' energy it appears that humans were gaining abilities similar to biotics. Over the centuries it was labelled magic. Merlin spoke of how magic was illegal for most of his life. He had far more power than most of his kind but it wasn't enough to stop Morgana from sealing him in the cave. Trapped inside, Merlin connected to the remains of a Prothean VI called Vanish. The VI's programming was severely compromised so Merlin offered his own consciousness as a sort of patch work to fill in the blanks. Vanish became an AI situated in Merlin's brain. Vanish adapted Merlin's DNA to be partly synthetic and eventually he became apart of the cave itself. He stayed that way for over a thousand years," Liara continued her story, explaining that Merlin's human DNA was breaking down and had to be replaced with much stronger Prothean based sequences. She then started talking about Cerberus, about Miranda and Project Emrys. Then she brought up how Merlin had ghosted Shepard for the beginning of his mission, enabling Mordin to cure the plague on Omega, taking out a squad of mercs who would've tried to kill Garrus.

Shepard was amazed at this man. Everything he'd been through and he still tried to help him. He saved Ashley. She'd never mentioned that. And Mordin too…

* * *

Merlin only pretended to be asleep. He knew Liara wanted to talk with Shepard but wouldn't leave if she felt she was needed. He watched through the glass as they talked for almost an hour—probably recounting Merlin's misadventures across the galaxy. Eventually, Liara left and Shepard was joined by a drell. They talked a bit and then Shepard had to leave.

* * *

Shepard had delayed long enough. It was time to go to the conference.


End file.
